What a year! When I wrote the end of year editorial for 2020, I thought that would be the worst of it. We had prevailed with grit, brilliant leadership, and extraordinary nursing and we were full of hope as the COVID-19 vaccinations began to roll out and the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel was visible. Where did that hope and joy go? And can we get it back?
2021 was enormously worse than we anticipated. Natural disasters, lagging vaccinations spoiled by politics, the rise and calamity of the delta variant, mental health escalations, elusive well-being, workforce exhaustion, and a crippling staffing shortage. The human resource literature is starting to run articles about "the great resignation," seen in all industry segments and especially in healthcare. It's no surprise after the year we've had, but we didn't see it coming at the beginning of the year. Well, at least I didn't. Nurse leaders around the country are struggling under the weight of the burdens.
In response, American Nurses Association President Ernest Grant wrote to the US Secretary of Health and Human Services imploring action at the federal level to address current workforce issues, fatigue and mental well-being, barriers to practice and increasing student enrollments, reimbursement methodology that recognizes nursing value, and vaccination education. This all aligns with The Future of Nursing 2020-2030 recommendations to remove barriers to full scope of practice, strengthen nursing education, and protect nurse well-being, among other things. The world needs us to be strong and influential right now.
I was particularly moved by Sharon Pappas' eloquent paper a few months ago in the Journal of Nursing Administration on the challenge facing organizational leadership to rebuild a compassionate workforce and positive work environments, advocating for relational competencies at every level of leadership and accountability for clinician well-being. She warns against using transactional approaches to drive improvements that "consume clinician resilience." So true, and the same for leaders. Great nursing leadership will drive our future. We'll need energy for this long-haul recovery work, and it won't be perfect or easy. Any organizational focus on well-being must include leaders. And we have to support each other along the way.
Sometimes finding your energy involves letting go, and not just of 2021. One of my colleagues recently posted a powerful example of how letting go isn't only therapeutic, but it also makes you better. She spoke about the "rocks" she could take out of her "backpack." Get rid of them. We aren't talking about letting go of our responsibilities and accountabilities. We're talking about letting go of what you can't control-those things that are out of your sphere of influence, yet you carry them around and they make you miserable. That misery and guilt is toxic to your soul and effectiveness. Lighten your load by accepting what you can't change. This isn't to say you shouldn't get in "good" trouble-I'm a big fan of it-but you have to decide what to let go.
I need to believe in our future and that we'll recover. Look for joy and purpose, and maybe let go of those "rocks in your backpack" along with 2021. The many challenges we can control, or at least influence, will stay with us and we need the energy to face them, together.
[email protected]